The Edinburgh Fringe comes quickly to London this week. To Soho Theatre to be precise. Three shows makes the journey south and if you didn’t have a chance to catch them in Scotland they all offer distinctive, different flavours of comedy.
Steen Raskopoulos, at Soho from Wednesday to Saturday, was nominated for a Foster’s Best Newcomer Award for his debut Edinburgh show. The young Australian bounds onto the stage and barely lets up for an hour with his mix of physical comedy and audience interaction. There are various unlikely characters, such as a film-reviewing Greek Orthodox priest, but the running theme is Raskopoulos’ businessman creation who never lets anything stop him from giving 110 %. He's very redolent of both Dr Brown and Adam Riches, but that doesn’t stop him from being hugely entertaining.
Neil Hamburger, at Soho from Tuesday to Saturday, on the other hand, may not be to everyone’s tastes. This lank-haired American character is the master of anti-comedy – jokes that are so creaky you can see the tumbleweed coming a mile off. There is a hint of Les Patterson about his stand-up slob as Hamburger splutters his way through the taste barrier with one-liners about various dead comedians. Even if you do not like your comedy tinged with taboo-busting it’s worth sticking around for the Whitney Houston tribute finale.
The final visitor to Soho this week, from Tuesday to Saturday, is Australia’s Luke McGregor. I saw him last week in Edinburgh and he claimed that the the show I saw was the weirdest he had ever done, though, of course, he may say that to all his audiences. He was, however, suffering from food poisoning and spent most of the gig crossing his legs and wondering if he could make it to the end without rushing to the toilet. Maybe not the best introduction to McGregor, but then again, his whole schtick is about being anxious.
McGregor suffers from OCD and the best chunk of his material in I Worry That I Worry Too Much is about his various unusual symptons, such as having to hop before he goes to bed. He also has to touch wood all the time – nothing unusual about that, you might say, but if McGregor can't find any wood he has to touch paper instead. Touch wood – or paper – his upset stomach will have eased by the time he opens in Soho this week.
